


Desire

by redtrouble



Category: Demonheart (Visual Novel)
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-18
Updated: 2020-02-18
Packaged: 2021-02-27 21:40:49
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,640
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22782670
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtrouble/pseuds/redtrouble
Summary: Raze rescues Bright and he realizes how much he desires her.[This piece follows the storyline created by Apocalypse and Ally, so apologies for any confusion. It leapfrogs into the future quite a bit, where Bright, Brash, and Ari find themselves being chased by demonspawn who, spurred by Thayn's promise and Orchid's son's power, hope to hasten the coming of the Apocalypse, and the trio seeks a way to stop them.]
Relationships: Bright/Raze (Demonheart)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 46





	Desire

_Bright, you need to leave,_ Raze told her through the amulet. _Now._

He watched her warn the other demonhearts with her, and the trio immediately began sprinting through the ruin. His Infernal Gaze had detected the demonspawn the moment they arrived. Brothers of the Apocalypse, as they had taken to calling themselves, eager to see the prophecy fulfilled.

 _Hurry!_ he hissed. _They know you’re here._

And they knew he had interfered. They had sensed his Gaze fall on them. Raze watched as two of them barreled through the keep corridors while the third began chanting, summoning magic that shook the ruined keep down to its foundations. Stone and dust were shaken loose, falling upon the trio as they fled toward the exit. _Almost there…_

But the others were gaining on them, not hindered by their brother’s magic. Raze found his hands were balled into fists and his jaw was clenched tight in what he realized must be fear. _Bright, hurry,_ he growled at her. She did not project her thoughts back to him, too focused on running and dodging. With her speed, she should have been at the front of the group, but she refused to eat any of the demonhearts they had found, so the brute had her by the hand, dragging her along until a stone dropped between them, separating them.

“Bright!” the brute barked.

“Go!” she exclaimed, coming around the debris. They kept running, the brute in the lead, the witch girl close behind, and Bright…

She wasn’t going to make it. _No,_ he thought. She would. She had to. The bridge was right there. Raze’s Gaze swept back across the ruin to where the demonspawn after her were closing in. _Bright…_ It was a warning. The group spilled onto the bridge, racing across. The brute was the first over, the witch girl second. Bright was close, so close.

A stone fell and ripped the bridge apart. _Bright!_ he shouted, watching in horror as the wooden rungs dropped out from under her feet. Her eyes widened as she began to fall. The witch screamed and the brute nearly leapt out after her.

Before Raze knew what had happened, he had teleported to her, grabbed her, and ported back. Bright screamed, stumbling as they appeared in his lair. She held onto him for dear life, practically climbing him while gasping for breath. He stood very still, panting—though not from exhaustion, but fear. The fall would not have killed her…but those demonspawn would have been upon her before her companions could get to her.

“Bright,” he began tentatively. She whirled in his arms to look up at him, citrine-colored eyes as big as coins.

“Raze,” she rasped, trying to catch her breath. Her body was having a harder time catching up to what her mind had already begun to understand: that she was not falling. That she was safe. That he had saved her…

“You’re fine,” he told her, unable to keep the arrogance out of his tone. It was hard to be completely genuine with her. There was always pretense between him and everyone he ever interacted with, including her—no, _especially_ her. She had the most power to hurt him, after all.

“Where is Brash? Ari?” she gasped, panic speeding her heart up even more. “Are they all right?”

Raze rolled his eyes in annoyance. That they were her first thought instead of him, standing right there in front of her, agitated him to no end. It had been so long, after all, since they had seen one another.

He often repeated to Bright how he could not understand her need for those fools that followed her, insisted that he was her only true friend. But the grim truth was that he _did_ understand why she needed them… The brute was strong and experienced, the witch was clever and powerful, and between their talents, they were formidable bodyguards. But their value was even simpler than that… They were capable of walking beside her wherever she went. And he? He refused to leave Inferno except by force, or if she was in dire need of aid. When it was all said and done, he could not even be her friend. Not her true friend, like he claimed… He did not know how.

“They made it across,” he told her and the relief on her face satisfied something inside of him. How aggravating! He felt like a puppet on her strings, twitching to her merry tune. The thought reviled him to his core, but he could not bring himself to change a thing about it. He had been observing humans for a long time, and he knew that he could search a millennium and never find another soul like Bright. She was…a gift.

Orchid had been rare to want a demonspawn son, but Bright was far rarer. Her capacity to love and accept those around her was astounding. Not like the worshippers drooling over any and all demonkind, who would love him for what he was, not who he was. Her affection was genuine. Human, demonheart, and demonspawn alike—and each had a hand in her pain—yet she had forgiven them, been kind to them, and loved them. Even him. He had waited for her mask to slip, for her selfishness to finally show, but it never had. She was, as that idiot brute like to say, perfect.

Bright’s grip on him loosened, her breath finally evening out. “Where are we?” she asked quietly, looking around.

It was not the Infernal lair she was used to seeing him occupy. When his brethren had invaded it, he’d had no choice but to find a less hospitable albeit safer location. She knew this, but it was her first time seeing it.

“Safe,” he answered then added, “For now.”

She swallowed hard and finally looked him in the eyes. Raze felt every muscle in his body grow taut. Seeing her in the flesh after so long was a blow. He had occupied her dreams for months, but he was never truly there with her. They had spoken through the amulet every day, but it was not the same… Not like this. Looking at her with his actual eyes, hearing her voice and not just her thoughts, touching her…

“You saved me,” she said, finally realizing it. She smiled—exhausted and shaken, but so lovely that it pained him. “Thank you, Raze.”

She tried to slip out of his grasp but he refused to let her go. She looked up at him, one brow furrowed with confusion.

“They almost had you,” he said, barely aware of what he was saying. She tried to stifle the terror that suddenly showed on her face. “They were so close this time.”

She nodded. “I know,” she murmured, looking down and away.

“Bright.”

She looked at him again, a single tear running down her cheek. Her mouth was trembling. It was the adrenaline finally leaving her system, or the post-trauma emotion one experiences when the mind finally processes what almost happened to it.

Raze captured her mouth with his in a slow and deliberate kiss, and he wasn’t sure what he was doing or why—only knew for sure that it was happening. His stomach tightened as he explored the sensation of his lips against hers with a remote sense of fascination. Soft. It was soft, but he felt the kiss in his body more than with his mouth. There was a tingling that started in his chest, constricting it. It traveled down to his groin, stirring heat there. How could such a simple touch with his mouth be so wildly different than one with his fingertips?

Raze understood the concept of a kiss, but he had never kissed before. Not like this. Not because he wanted to, because he initiated it. Others had mashed their lips against his, a brief and wet exchange, before he had extracted himself from the touch. It had been annoying at best, a violation at worst. Yet it hadn’t been that way when she first kissed him. It had been just as sudden and unexpected, but not unwelcome. It had shocked him, of course, and, though brief, had struck him with a profound sense of longing and joy, just before the bloodsteel had slipped between his ribs. That’s when he knew it was all a delusion.

He hated her for it. _Despised_ her. But he despised himself more. He deserved it. He had pushed her to it. And yet his rage would not ebb. Oh, how he wanted to rip her apart! And oh, how he wanted her to kiss him again. It was a thought that kept coming back to him, even when he wanted nothing more than to see her die. In the unlikeliest turn of events, they had found their way back to one another as allies, and he was finally kissing her again. It wasn’t like the first time, but somehow more. Somehow better.

And then something miraculous happened. She started to kiss him back.

A dam broke inside of him and he grabbed her arms, pushing her against the wall as his tongue pushed inside her mouth. Bright gasped, giving him the perfect opening, and he lapped at her like a thirsty man at water. His hands traveled the length of her, mapping her curves, intensifying the feelings inside of him that the kiss had created. He drew her waist flush with his torso on instinct alone, feeding that growing heat, then gripped her rear and held her tight against his pelvis.

The little noise she made was exquisite.

“Bright,” he growled, finally recognizing that feeling swelling inside of him. Desire. True desire. Absolute. He hadn’t known he could feel this way. It was overwhelming.

The hags who had imprisoned him had wanted to know everything there was to know about demonspawn, mating habits included. When he was old enough to exhibit sexual urges, they had gifted him flesh offerings—young women from nearby villages—and he had taken them. He couldn’t avoid it even if he wanted to. But once he had achieved his freedom, every instinct in him had shut down except that of survival. It was a long time before he gave in to his sexual urges, and he was disgusted with himself every time he did for surrendering to that base nature the hags had so grossly exploited. It made him feel like an animal.

But not with her. Not with Bright. In that moment, he could feel the desire leaking out of every pore and squeezing his heart in a vice.

While one hand held her against his erection, the other slid up her ribcage to her chest, thumb and claw gliding over the hard nipple beneath her tunic. He felt her small fingers brace against his bare skin, both pushing and pulling at his shoulders, as though she wasn’t sure if she wanted to deny wanting this or hasten its course. When those same fingers wrapped around his neck, he knew she had surrendered.

“Bright,” he rasped, his lips and tongue blazing a path down her throat, tasting her skin. He lingered on the scar on her neck, commiserating with that brand of cruelty. His own body was covered with them.

Her hands brushed the roots of his wings and pleasure speared through him until he thrust against her with a growl deep in his throat.

“Raze!” she gasped erotically.

He tore himself away from her and dragged in a ragged breath. His name on her lips was like a hot brand to his chest. What was he doing? Why? This would not end well. How would they look at one another at the end? She wasn’t for him and he…he didn’t even know how to be her friend, much less anything more. And she would need that “something more”. She was not the kind of woman who fucked purely for the pleasure of it. Her heart was always in it… He didn’t want to ruin what he had with her.

Raze turned to look at her, his palms itching with the absence of her skin. He watched the dramatic rise and fall of her chest as she struggled to catch her breath, looked at her mouth wet from his kisses, her eyes full of turmoil and desire. She wouldn’t ask him to continue. She wouldn’t obligate him to this course. She knew his painful past—an irritating detail, if he was being honest—and would be willing to let this go. To forgive him…

And he saw that she would be willing to give herself to him. There was a need in her gaze, in the slant of her mouth, that mirrored his own. He throbbed with that realization, grunted as his whole body tensed up, desire fighting restraint.

Desire won.

He pinned her against the wall and lifted her up, tearing at her clothes. When he had gotten them off, her fingers brushed the scars on his chest before she lowered her mouth to them, kissing that ruined, discolored flesh. He sighed hotly, that vice grip in his chest squeezing tighter. Her palms flattened on his abdomen, exploring the valleys and ridges of muscle as her tongue did something similar across his pectorals.

Raze groaned, briefly wrapping his fingers in her hair before he lifted her up off the ground. She wrapped her legs around his waist and her arms circled his neck, stroking his skin, tangling her fingers in his hair. With one hand, he supported her weight and, with the other, he drew her torso against his, bending her back so he could lower his head to suckle at the hollow of her throat. Her breathing fluttered. Beneath the thin scrap of fabric covering his groin, he could feel the heat between her legs and his control rapidly unravelling.

In two quick movements, Raze unhooked the chain around his hips to drop the loincloth and thrust up into her. She cried out, tugging on a fistful of his hair. For a full second, his mind went utterly blank, and then sensation crashed over him like a wave of rapture. He rocked in and out of her tight, warm depth, holding her against him as his palms caressed her skin, trying to burn feeling into his nerve endings. He tilted his head up to meet her lips and they kissed, open-mouthed and hungry, while her fingers clawed at his shoulders and back, brushing his wings until they trembled.

He hiked her higher for deeper access and, using the wall for leverage, thrust into her with a frenzy until she flew apart. He followed immediately after, emptying his seed into her barren womb. Still inside of her, Raze rested his forehead on her shoulder, anticipating the emptiness and disgust that usually followed his couplings, but he felt nothing of the sort. He felt only utter contentment and satisfaction.

He looked up into Bright’s face, wondering what he would find there, prepared for the awkwardness, regret, and possibly shame. Instead, he found her looking at him with the same gentle expression she always wore. Nothing had changed…as though this intimacy was always between them. She dropped her forehead against his and he closed his eyes, gently nuzzling her cheek with his nose.

When she leaned back, he grinned at her. His desire was no longer a thirst needing to be slaked, but a candle to burn, with a wick that was long and a flame that was hot.

“Oh, Bright,” he murmured. “I do believe you’re in trouble again…”

When he saw that small, shy smile tugging at the corner of her lips, he stiffened again and, supporting her weight with his hands wrapped around her thighs, he carried her toward the bedroom.

**Author's Note:**

> It's my first time writing Raze romance, so apologies if it didn't hold up. In Demonheart, I could never see him as a true romance option for Bright. There was too much pretense between them, and his psychological trauma at the hands of the witches seemed to blockade him from any kind of physical or emotional intimacy. I personally saw any kind of romance between them as a slow burn, where trust and affection had to be built up over a long period of time before any of those walls could come down. I do think Raze is intrigued by Bright almost immediately, and is drawn to her romantically and sexually early on, but that those walls prevent him from realizing the depth or meaning of those feelings and from pursuing them. Perhaps it was a mistake on my part to assume his perspective without first exploring this build-up, but writing "Ally" made me want to peek into Raze's head, so I did some quick calculations, and here we are. :) I hope you could enjoy it despite its flaws.


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